Budme Veseli!

Long ago, in deepest, darkest December, I wrote about some BBC animations designed to reassure teenagers who were worried they were freaks, in relation to various puberty um, developments. These were Funny Flaps for the girls and Willy Wonky for the boys.

It seems that there are new additions to these, so I am pleased to present, Hairy Mary and First Blood in the girls' series, and Hard Times and Virgin Record for the boys.

They're cute and fun.

Today, I came across a random miniature book sale within Sheffield Co-op. More specifically, it was within the Opticians. It was in aid of Childline and had a random selection of mostly dreadful books, for a very, very tiny amount of money.

Having a love of old cookbooks, I bought Cooking for Compliments for 50p and for 25p I bought a Teach Yourself Czech book. I can't imagine I will ever teach myself Czech but it's nice to have the option on those long, insomniac nights.

And then, for another whopping 50p I found a great book from 1979 called The Women's Directory which is just incredibly fabulous. It seems that in those days there was an awful lot of brilliantly radical stuff going on in Sheffield. The book describes itself as

A self-help guide to every thing women are doing and thinking in Britain today: including Health, Sexuality, The Sex Discrimination Act, Welfare Benefits, Work, Children, Rape, The Women's Movement, Fostering, The Arts.

Mis-fit... 

That was one of the things in that book, and I'm looking forward to having a proper read.

There are lots of Alternative Health Warning stickers you can buy to, um, replace the big shiny warnings on packets of fags. Now you can print your own... some ones here and a whole load more to choose from.

ILGA tell me that two boys were executed publicly in Iran on Tuesday. The article and pictures are so sad.

Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be hanged

ILGA are suggesting people express their protests to the Iranian Ambassador, at info@iran-embassy.org.uk, or Tel: 020 7225 3000; Fax: 020 7589 4440 or by post to:
Iranian Ambassador
Embassy of Iran
16 Prince's Gate
London SW7 1PT.

"According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

"Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule. The victims include women who have sex outside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.

"Last August, a 16 year old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was hanged for 'acts incompatible with chastity.'

I also uploaded the story to Indymedia UK.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Budme Veseli! means Let's be Cheerful in Czech. And, in case you ever need it, proc pises tim spatnym perem? means, Why are you writing with this bad pen? And I leave you with Svezli jste vsechno zito s poli? - Have you brought in all the rye from the fields?